Spurred on by just finishing a particularly bad session, I opted to send an email to DICE regarding my problems. I inquired about an email address to two employees, names given to me by B, and had received 2 replies by the next day. I ended up sending it to Community Manager zh1nt0 (https://twitter.com/#!/zh1nt0). I wasn't expecting a reply to be honest, but I found a detailed response from him today. Thought I'd post it up. Have a new level of respect for DICE after this, knowing they are still looking at issues in Bad Company 2 while working on Vietnam and MOH, not to mention the fact they replied. Getting a reply from 402 or JD when negative issues were raised was just impossible. Anyway, here it is.

My email to him;

Hi there,Thank you for giving me the oppurtinity to voice my feedback. I am a very big fan of Bad Company 2's multiplayer but matches are becoming more difficult to enjoy due to a number of problems plaguing the game, so I thought I would relay them. No doubt you are already aware of the issues, and with other games to work on right now I doubt this issues can be given sufficient attention, but you reading this would reassure me at least.

Largely since the introduction of an increased amount of points rewarded for objective damage, the tactical nature of 'Rush' has degenerated. The act of actually planting a charge on the MCOM and waiting for it to go off is a rare sight these days; 90% of the time, someone will simply spam C4 on to the MCOM and detonate, often not bothering to plant at all. Assault classes can even stay there and replenish their own C4 supplies to do it again, if the defending team is incompetent enough. With the explosive upgrade abilities equipped, it can take no more than 2 detonations to completely destroy the MCOM. It is commonly thought that this is an overpowered technique, as well as being very cheap. It seems largely to be done because it can net about 500 points per go, with the +250 bonus for the objective being destroyed. However, it is also robbing people who plant normally of points, as when they jump in and C4 the MCOM, the 250 points that would have gone to the person who planted, go to the person who spammed C4. C4 can be used in many ways to destroy the MCOM that can be extremely difficult to defend against, such as loading up a UAV with C4 and simply flying it to the station to instantly destroy it if it is already damaged.

There are many ways that this could be addressed. They include reducing the maximum amount of C4 available to you, reducing their potency against the MCOM stations, reducing the points earned for objective damage (though this would not guarantee anything) or even making the MCOM station repairable with a drill, even if at a very slow speed. C4 is making Rush incredibly frustrating at times, whether as a defender, or as an attacker who is uncomfortable with seeing the technique being used and having his points stolen.

Another issue is the absolute abuse of the Recon class. I used to spend most of my time as a recon in Bad Company 2, whether sniping and spotting, or running in and planting while relying on my pistol, but don't touch the class at all when playing with strangers simply as nearly everybody else is trying to snipe. It's unbelievable how common it is to join a game, be put into a squad and find three Recons sat with sniper rifles right at your spawn, and sat right next to each other for that matter. It makes it extremely difficult to be an efficient attacker, as you have to respawn at the base every time you die. Not to mention that it makes for an incredibly frustrating experience for defenders, particularly on small maps like Isla Inocentes where they are also bombarded with mortar strikes. Although it is satisfying to get their dog tags.

This one would be more difficult to address, but perhaps limiting the amount that one class can be used, within a team or squad, could be considered. I personally think it would mean squads would need to work together more in addition to massively cutting down on the recon spam, although it would be a somewhat significant change so I can understand why it would not be made.

I have also experienced a lot of inconsistency with hit detection and lag in Bad Company 2 recently, as have many of my gaming associates. It is quite irksome when the lag is so bad you can't even walk in a straight line, or when you empty a full magazine into the head of an enemy for the to kill you immediately with their Abakan and magnum ammo. However, I doubt there is anything that can be done by DICE to effectively stop this, but at least it is not constant like a certain other big-name first person shooter out at the moment.

The final issue that I wish to mention is the Combat Knife. Every single game I tell myself "They need to fix this" when it's poor hit detection gets me killed yet again. In a match when my hit detection with guns is otherwise perfect and I have no lag, the combat knife is still an incredibly unreliable weapon. I have actually seen the blade physically enter their bodies and seen the blood spatter, and yet they run off as though nothing had happened. Even if you sneak up on a stationary target (like somebody using a UAV) the knife is not guaranteed to kill him on the first, second or even third stab on occasion. If the hit detection for the weapon could be improved at all, dog tag hunting will become far more rewarding, and trying to stab someone who surprises you at close range might not get you killed 90% of the time.

Thank you for reading my no doubt excessively long email. Regardless of these complaints I still love Bad Company 2 for so many reasons, and it saddens me that these few issues are watering down an experience and often making it frustrating when it can so often be exhilerating. I do hope you will consider some of my points seriously. After all, I am but one voice of a large community who often feel the same way. Just please remember that even when DICE releases Medal of Honor, which will no doubt be a fine FPS, there will still be thousands of people playing BC2. Thank you for your time, and if you manage to find the time to reply about any of what I have mentioned I would be extremely grateful.

Regards,Mark

And here is his response.

Hello Mark!

Thank you for your e-mail. I'm really finding your feedback to be very interesting!

Yes, it is true that we are aware of many issues with the game and having them looked into. Of course we want to provide the best experience for our fans and fellow players.

Your feedback is really good and you make a lot of valid points. I will leave the M-COM discussion for someone who actually designed the game and knows a bit about it since I don't want to be misleading you or give you false information but from what I have noticed, repairable M-COMS would de-balance the game in another way where you have multiple engineers spawning on one crate and repairing it. Just as you have people putting C4 on the crates. It is for me very difficult to actually say what the thought is behind this but I'll be sure to check it out.

And yes, the Recon issue. We allow people to play the game just as they like, that includes Sniper Class also. My personal experience is that I never play with the Sniper class since I am too impatient to do that but this also goes way higher than actually removing somethings. If you have seen the TOS published for the game, we don't meddle in how people play. That is also why we have no class limitations on Ranked Servers etc..

And the Combat knife. My god. I have been so furious with this knife at many occasions. I know exactly what you mean and I can't tell you how many times I have actually brought this up. Of course they are trying to find a way to fix the knife but since it is not "bug-related" but server related it has to be re-enacted to that point where you can finally try it out without it bugging. The knife is also very much due to lag. I can't really say for sure how the QA or DEV teams work when trying these things out. All I can say (that I know of) is that they are trying it out and looking at what they can do to reduce the mis-knifings.

No problem You can write me anytime you like. I hope I did answer some questions here and if I didn't keep sending them to me !

Have an awesome day!

It's good to know that they are looking into things. I think it's fair enough that they don't want to restrict player classes, it is understandable. He also has a good point about repair, even though I think it would still work if it repaired slowly enough.What do you make of it?

Nice email Mushi! I love that you got a response from someone who actually cares about their community.

Just a quick word of advice from someone who has to read 100's of emails daily. When sending something like this try to cut down the length. Yes, the piece was written well, but someone who is at work reading an email like this would probably overlook it.

I like how he says to continue to voice your feelings via email just try to remember to keep them a little shorter and more concise. Just my .02

That was a great exchange, good initial email, Mark. Though JJ is right. Considering the volume of emails he must get, it would be wise to be more concise with points since it would take a while to go through all of that.

Seeing an actual mature, adult, response from a CM is... well, I have nothing but respect for the DICE team now. If all companies would employ CMs like that, I think the gaming community would benefit greatly.

The fact that he took the time to read and reply to Mushy is great, unlike other CM's that just ignore the majority of comminty comments. From what i see DICE are streets ahead of the competition when it comes to community relations.